Owned by the Russian Mafia Boss: A Mob Romance (31 page)

Dimly, he heard Ivan chuckle. “You didn’t exactly save your skills for Fedor, now did you? There are scores of dead bodies in your past, and enough money in your bank account to prove that you’ve done quite well for yourself. Don’t question my morals, boy.”

“I will kill you,” he hissed.

“Yes. I figured that you would feel that way,” Ivan said mildly. “You could work for me instead, you know. I’d even let you freelance in your own time. We could be a family again.”

“You killed my family. And for what? Because my father wouldn’t make weapons for you?”

“I was his friend!” Ivan suddenly howled. “He would make them for Fedor, but he wouldn’t make them for me? Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? I offered him more money and more safety. I offered him freedom from Fedor, and he turned me down!”

Dmitri waited for Ivan to calm down. When he spoke again, his voice was even. “Your father thought he had a way out from Fedor’s thumb. He said that he was getting out. He didn’t want to raise you on a mountain of bodies. But I wanted in. I wanted in, and your father could have done that for me. He didn’t have to die, Dmitri. We could have been great together.”

“It looks like it didn’t matter. You got what you wanted anyway,” Dmitri pointed out. “Tell me where the woman is, and I’ll make sure your death is quick. That is the best that I can offer you.”

At first, Ivan didn’t say anything. When he spoke, his voice was low and dark. “I never wanted in on the Russian game. I just needed the contacts and the wealth to start somewhere else. So here is the deal, Anton. I’m on my way out of the country. Once I’m gone, I’m disappearing. You’ll never find me.”

Dmitri gripped the phone. “You’ll never get to the plane. I’ll kill you before that happens.”

“If you want your woman alive, you won’t come near me. I’m going to give you the address where I’ve got your precious Charley. I’m thirty minutes away from the airport. If I don’t call to say that I’m safely on board the plane, she’s dead. So you can either let me go, or you can save her.”

Dmitri swallowed hard. “I’ve spent a lifetime waiting for the moment to get revenge on the man who killed my father. Why would you gamble your life on that of a woman I just met?”

“The boy I raised would have killed anyone who could identify him. The man who kept her alive and safe did so out of love. I feel assured you’ll make the right decision.”

Dmitri closed his eyes and inwardly cursed. Ivan was making him choose. “Why give me the address if you plan on releasing her once you’re safely on the plane?”

“I never said I was releasing her. When I make the call, she’s dead.”

Dmitri’s heart sped up. Charley was dead either way unless he could get to her on time. “The address,” he hissed.

“She’s where you betrayed me, my boy. She’ll die there.” The phone went dead, and Dmitri stared at it. He was holding Charley on the bridge where Dmitri had first faked his death. He would never be able to save her and get to Ivan in time. In fact, if he waited too much longer, he’d never get to Charley at all.

She might die anyway. There wasn’t any way in hell that Dmitri was going to let Ivan get away with that.

With a whispered apology, he made his decision.

***

Charley shivered as the wind whipped around them. They stood precariously on the steel beams under a bridge and over the dangerous currents of the rocky river below them. If she fell, she had no doubt she would die. She stared at her former roommate as she held the gun to her. For a moment, she thought briefly of just letting go. At least if she fell, she’d have some sort of control over how she died.

A hollow victory, but a victory nonetheless.

“You look nervous. Afraid that Dmitri will choose Ivan over you?” Daphne said with a cold smile.

She was afraid of that, but she wasn’t about to tell Daphne. “You should be more concerned about what happens if he chooses me. He’ll never let you live,” Charley said as she gripped the beam. God, how was it possible that with a hundred cars passing over them, no one knew that they were under here?

A nervous looked passed through Daphne’s eyes, and Charley felt triumphant. “If he doesn’t come for me, then Ivan’s dead, and you’ve lost the person who signs your checks. Neither is a great situation for you.”

“Stop talking,” Daphne snarled.

“Hey, you started this conversation.” Charley peered nervously over the edge. Yup. Death for sure. “I’m just wondering what your future plans are.”

Daphne adjusted her grip on the gun. “If he chooses you, he’ll be dead before he hits the bridge. We have people stationed all over this place. Every fifth car that crosses has a gun aimed for the head of your beloved assassin.” A nasty grin spread across her face. “Ivan wants to make sure that he can return to Russia. And believe me, when Dmitri is dead, the payout for me will be enough for me to retire for good.”

Charley stared at her. “So I’m dead either way,” she whispered.

“Oh, sweetheart, you were dead the moment Dmitri stepped into your life. That’s how things work around here. You and your American notions of a happy ending just don’t come true in the world of the Russian mob. The only reason I haven’t shot you yet is for my own preference. I want to see the look on your face when you see his dead body fall from the bridge.”

Dread seeped into Charley’s bones as she stared down the barrel of the gun. She had nothing to say to that, and Daphne seemed to know it. “Of course, Dmitri is a smart man. He’d know that it was a trap. And I doubt someone like you is worth anything to someone like him. I have no doubt that Dmitri will choose to kill Ivan, and he’ll meet his death there as well.” She cocked her head. “You don’t actually think you’re worth something to him, do you?”

Charley tried desperately to hold on to the idea that she meant something to Dmitri. If she was going to die, she wanted to die thinking that some part of him might love her.

Daphne pulled out her phone and glanced at it. A worried look crossed her face.

“Boss didn’t call to check in?” Charley asked dryly. It was nice to know that at least things weren’t going well for Daphne either. She really wanted to see that bitch die.

Her old roommate didn’t say anything as she dialed a number. “What the hell is going on?” she demanded into the phone. As she turned her back, a shadow fell over them. Charley did her best not to shriek as a body moved swiftly down. Dmitri swung down in one powerful movement and landed silently between them. When Daphne turned back around, he already had a gun up.

Daphne’s eye’s rounded, and the phone dropped from her hand. Charley had to suppress the urge to watch its long drop into the water.

“Not possible,” Daphne whispered. “Somebody should have seen you.”

Dmitri merely shrugged. “I’m didn’t go undetected all these years because I was bad at my job.”

“Ivan was so sure that you would choose him.” Daphne backed up, and the gun in her hand waivered. “I don’t want to die.”

“You should have thought of that before agreeing to Ivan’s employment. There is not a single scenario where you get out of this alive,” Dmitri murmured.

Without warning, Daphne pulled the trigger. The shot went wild, and Daphne lost her balance and tumbled from the beam. She wasn’t the only one. Terrified of the shot, Charley lunged toward Dmitri and slipped. She opened her mouth in a silent scream as she realized that she was falling.

A thousand things slipped through her mind. She felt slighted that she’d spent all that time in grad school, and now she wouldn’t even graduate. She felt sorrow that she wouldn’t ever see Veronika again. She thought about her stupid little insignificant life in Russia and all the things that she would never be able to do.

She thought about Dmitri. She thought of all the things she wanted to say to him. Rage. Irritation.

Love.

It didn’t even seem possible for all the thoughts to fly through her mind. As soon as she lost her footing, an arm was circling her waist. “Easy. Don’t panic,” Dmitri whispered in her ear as he righted her.

Charley gasped and circled her arms around him. “Are you shot? Did she shoot you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Her aim was off. I knew that.” His eyes darkened with intensity as he stared at her. “Did she hurt you?”

“No. She said she wanted me to watch you die,” she muttered as she ran her hands along his chest. Part of her couldn’t even believe that he was here. She had to touch him and prove to herself that it wasn’t a hallucination.

“I don’t plan on dying today,” Dmitri said huskily. He straightened and lifted his head to study to bridge above them. “Getting down was the easy part. With the wind whipping around, the currents in the river are deadly. We’ll have to go back up.”

Charley followed his gaze. “There is no way I’m ever going to get back up there,” she whispered.

Dmitri flashed her a sexy grin and winked. “Trust me, babe. I do this for a living.”

Charley stared at him. “You chose me,” she muttered. In her head, she thought of all the romantic things he might say. He might confess his love or at least confess that he might have feelings for her.

He didn’t say any of those things. Instead he just gave her a small smile. “What makes you think I had to choose?”

***

The guards pulled out their keys and opened the door. Dmitri cast a quick look around before sitting at the table. Ivan, dressed in the prison attire, sat across from him with his arms handcuffed to the table.

It was almost satisfactory to see the man who killed his father utterly defeated.  “They told me that Anton was visiting me,” Ivan whispered. “How could you have adopted your original identity?”

Dmitri smiled. “It was quite easy. After Kazimir went after you and got you arrested, I went to the authorities and explained the situation. I told them that I faked my death at the age of eighteen to get away from my psycho guardian. If they thought it was odd that I bare a striking resemblance to the dead assassin Dmitri, they didn’t say.”

After Dmitri called Ivan, he immediately called Kazimir. Kaz went after Ivan while Dmitri went for Charley. Soon he’d have to actually start calling Kazimir a friend.

“I still win,” Ivan hissed. “I can do great things behind bars.”

Dmitri leaned back against the chair and gave him a chilling smile. “I could have had Kazimir kill you. He offered. For the death of my father, you deserve it. But for what you did to Charley, you deserve so much worse. You’re powerless in here, Ivan. I’ve personally spoken to the warden. I know half the men who share a cell with you. If you so much as attempt to contact the outside world, you’ll be beaten within an inch of your life. But they won’t kill you. I want you to live in this filth for as long as I can.”

His former guardian stared at him in horror. “We were family, Anton.”

“My father was my family. You were the man who turned a child into a killing machine. Into a monster.”

Ivan chuckled. “I gave you the tools. You were the one who was so damn good at it. You don’t actually think you’ll go legit now, do you? You’ve done this your whole life. You know of nothing else. You’ll shed blood until someone finally ends you.”

Dmitri rolled his head as if he was bored. “I’m done with this life, Ivan. I have enough money to retire, and I don’t have a thirst for blood. I’ve found something else now. Something real.”

“The woman?” Ivan asked as his eyes widened. “You almost got her killed. She’ll never take you back.”

That was the first thing Ivan had said that even remotely rang true. Dmitri had no idea if Charley would even consider taking him back. It would probably just be best if he walked away. “It doesn’t matter if we’re together or not,” Dmitri said softly. “What matters is that I know I’m capable of love. She showed me that. She’s my redemption even if I never see her again.”

“You’re a fool. Love makes you weak.”

“Maybe. But I wouldn’t give it up for the world.” He got up and shook his head. “I won’t come back, Ivan. This is the last time you’ll see me. I’ll keep tabs on you, though. I want to make sure you rot in here.”

“I loved you.”

Dmitri froze as he stared at Ivan. The man’s eyes were filled with sadness as he looked at him. “I mourned your death, Anton. It affected me more than you could even imagine. I took you as revenge against your father, but I grew to love you as my own. I sometimes wonder about the man you would have been had you known how much I loved you.”

There was nothing for Dmitri to say, so he simply turned and walked out. Things would have been radically different if he’d been raised with love rather than hatred. Maybe if he had, he would have been able to hold onto love when he had the chance. Maybe Charley would be his.

Chapter Ten

“So you’ve only been in Russia for a week?” Charley asked, trying to force a smile. The petite woman in front of her pushed her thick Coke-bottle lens glasses up her face and nodded. “And before that you were in England?”

Again, the woman nodded meekly. Charley flipped through the pages and sighed. As yet another search began for a new roommate, she was starting to find red flags everywhere. On paper, the woman in front of her seemed perfect. She was in Moscow to study Russian culture, and Charley has Kazimir check every moment of her life. She was clean.

But as the supposedly perfect woman sat in front of her, Charley began to pick her apart. No one wore glasses that thick anymore. Obviously she was trying to hide her identity. Whoever was sitting across from her wasn’t the woman Kazimir had investigated.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t think it’s going to be a great fit,” she said as she stood. It wasn’t the first time she’d mourned the loss of her baseball bat. After her kidnapping and Ivan’s arrest, the authorities descended on the hotel room like a swarm. Everything was taken as evidence, including her baseball bat.

Dmitri, of course, disappeared. He’d been gone for three weeks now, and there was no word on his whereabouts. He’d simply dropped her off at the police station and melted into the shadows.

She’d been interviewed relentlessly, but she had no information to give. Over and over again, she just said that one of Ivan’s enemies had her kidnapped. She had no idea who he was or where he was.